Not surprising given that Canberra is essentially a one industry (government) town, and I fully agree with Deano about the need to stop and look at the growth paradigm for a minute.

I’m far more concerned by the plans to put in 33,000 new homes in the Molonglo Valley. Firstly, as the global economy slows down where are the jobs for those people coming from? Secondly, are those houses environmentally sustainable in a city where the dam levels are still below 50% after a wet La Nina summer? And then you have to consider solid waste disposal, electricity provision, transport, etc.

The government is aiming for 500,000 people in Canberra – does that actually make sense given the nature of the city and its environment? I’m not sure it does. How about we address sustainability first and then look to further growth? Nah, that’d actually be planning for a future more than 3 years away…

The article was a follow-up to a very good article Peter Martin a few weeks back, in which he said the lack of housing for purchase or rent was putting the ACT economy at risk of stalling. Two days after that article Jon Stanhope published a rebuttal that basically didn’t. He claimed all these hundreds of new blocks released – but none of them were – they were still plans on the developer’s desks and months of not years from you and me being able to slap down a deposit.
Today’s article is basically presenting the evidence that Peter Martin’s prediction was right.

Although Deano has a point about the value of “growth”, there is the spin off of the land shortage which in turn makes housing so much less affordable for everyone.

word Deano. Another hiccup could also be that around federal election time canberrans tend to pull the purse strings a wee bit tighter waiting to see what the outcome is from the whole change of government/departmental shuffle/job axing party that always comes with such a thing.

Basically, the ACT went through a building boom, as evidenced by the number of cranes on the skyline. This boom boosted the growth figures for the economy. Now that the majority of these projects are coming to completion, things are returning to normal. To say that we are not growing is untrue because new activities have developed that are filling in the void left by the decline in building activity.

In any case, continuously growing economies are not necessarily a good thing.